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Staff Member

Great set up and good to hear he enjoyed his cucumber. That probably tasted like heaven to him after being deprived of his veg and given Baytril
Sounds like he's on the mend. Just take it slowly with a small amount of veg and see how you go. My old lady pig Violet sonetimes sounds about gassy so I give her a bit of gripe water when needed to help disperse gas (just Woodwards gripe water from Tesco baby section or any chemists). It's safe to use in small amounts and they love the taste. It's cheap to keep in as a stand by!
If you could make a small hospital cage for next to your bed that would be an excellent idea. You need to get your own rest too.
You are doing an excellent job. Just look after yourself too

Just poped home on lunch break to check on him, only a dozen or so misshapen and dry looking poos :/ I did manage to massage out two more fairly discoloured and mushy ones and a bit of wind so he is still passing them thankfully, and only feels a little bloated so maybe just dehydrated? I filled his bottles this morning so he seems to be drinking fine so I've got an appointment to get him back in to the vet this afternoon. I've refilled the bottles again so I can check after work and given lots of fresh hay so hopefully it will pass by the time i get home

Vet update: When i got home he had still only passed one or two very small hard stools, however about half 3 he started dropping a large number of normal droppings and has been consistently dropping a half dozen or so of these every 15 minutes. Vet had a good feel of his tummy and said all felt normal so it was probably just the last of the backed up bloat working it's way out and that should hopefully be fine. I'll keep him off the veg overnight tonight again just to be safe though

He also suggested swapping him off Baytril to reduce the risk of future bloating and reduce the risk of immunity build up as he's been on it off and on for the past month almost. He's also taken the emeprid off as he feels there is now just too much passing through his system and it would be the least effect med at this stage.

He also reccomended putting the probiotic back in to the water bottle rather than syringing to reuce any unnecessary stress or damage (he has a large but harmless growth on his right cheek just by his lip which he's worried might get irritated) he may be having with the excessive amount of oral treatment hes been getting.

However, they're very optimistic that as long as the UTI clears up he'll be fine, knock on wood

Just noticed his meloxaid has been upped from the cats dose (0.5mg/ml) to the dogs dose (1.5mg/ml). He's already had it so I phoned the emergency vet who said they weren't 100% why the switch but it ahould be safe. Any insights and should I be worried?

Staff Member

I'll tag @Wiebke and @Adelle who may know more about that than I do. I'm not sure about cat vs dog doses. But exotics vets do give bigger doses anyway.
All sounds like things are going in right direction. You can hopefully start to relax and catch up on some sleep again

Staff Member

Just noticed his meloxaid has been upped from the cats dose (0.5mg/ml) to the dogs dose (1.5mg/ml). He's already had it so I phoned the emergency vet who said they weren't 100% why the switch but it ahould be safe. Any insights and should I be worried?

Thanks Vicki He's a wee bit lethargic but still had a wander when I popped him on the floor so I'm not too worried. I had a look through Potter's leftover meds in the cupboard and he was on 0.25ml and weighed only 0.98kg at the time so hopefully that will be a safe dose and he managed to wiggle and get some down his chin so it wasn't the full 0.3 anyway

I did some maths and he was on 0.18mg/kg per 24 hours (0.5×0.5 = 0.25/1.35 = 0.18mg/kg) and is now on 0.33mg/kg per 24 hours (0.3×1.5 = 0.45/1.35 = 0.33mg/kg) and as far as I've read the max reccomended dosage they can have is 0.5mg/kg per 12 hours so he should be safe enough and it wears off quickly

Ah Billy you're a star! I was panicking he was finally getting better and I'd gone and stumped his progress, glad to know he's safe and sound. I'll give the vet a call in the morning, they said they were going to reduce the dose not increase it! Easy mistake I suppose given it wasn't the same person and each will have their own prefference to perscribing as you said for ease vs dose!

Staff Member

it sounds like the vet wanted to up the pain relief perhaps - 0.3ml dog metacam would be equal to 0.9ml cat metacam. It is a higher dose than what vets would normally give but generally fine for short term use. He is a big pig also
Cookie was 1kg and used to be on 0.1ml dog metacam twice daily for jaw arthritis. So 0.2ml daily.

Just give them a ring when open again to make sure they made the switch deliberately and not a dispensing error.

Staff Member

I'll tag @Wiebke and @Adelle who may know more about that than I do. I'm not sure about cat vs dog doses. But exotics vets do give bigger doses anyway.
All sounds like things are going in right direction. You can hopefully start to relax and catch up on some sleep again

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Most vets prescribe dog metacam because you only have to give a little instead of syringe fulls with three times weaker cat metacam. Much easier, especially with a struggling piggy!

All the best! Please be aware that bloat comes in waves and that the intestines take several weeks to settle down, so you have to very carefully and slowly shift over to a normal diet again.

Staff Member

Btw @CraigGlasgow if you ever want to get one of our attention you can tag any member by typing @ immediately followed by their forum name. It will anticipate members with those letters in their name and you click in the one you want. It then notifies the person you've tagged and makes it easier sometimes amidst all the threads to see the post/thread.

Staff Member

Ah Billy you're a star! I was panicking he was finally getting better and I'd gone and stumped his progress, glad to know he's safe and sound. I'll give the vet a call in the morning, they said they were going to reduce the dose not increase it! Easy mistake I suppose given it wasn't the same person and each will have their own prefference to perscribing as you said for ease vs dose!

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Ah... they said they were going to decrease it? Definitely sounds like a dispensing error. If you have already dosed don't panic like I said piggies have had larger doses and tolerate it well.
Perhaps they wanted him on 0.3ml of cat meloxaid (metacam) which would be the equivalent of 0.1ml dog meloxaid if they wanted the dose lowered.

ring them tomorrow and explain what they said and what you have been given see what dose pain relief they want him on with the dog metacam you have been given

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